Cotton-chopper.



J. H. LANHAM.

COTTON GHOPPER. APPLICATION IILBD MAY 7, 1914. RENEWED FEB. 13, 1915.

1,1 33,044. Patented Mar. 23, 1915.

a sums-51mm 1'.

Attorneys THE NORRIS PETERS CO PHOTG-LITHQ, WASHINGTON. D- C.

J. H. LANHAM.

COTTON CHOPPER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 1 1914. RENEWED FEB. 13, 1915.

' 1,133,044. Patented M31123, 1915 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

lnventbr I Attorneys J. H. LANHAM.

COTTON CHOPPER. APPLICATION FILED MAY 7, 1914. n sn nwnn r23. 12, 1915.

1,133,044. Patented Mar.23,1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Inventor Attorneys THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. FHDTCJJTHQ, WASHINGTON. D. c.

JAMES HENRY LANHAM, 0F ROME,

GEORGIA, ASSIGNOB T0 ALLIE W. WA'ITERS, OF

ROME, GEORGIA.

COTTON-CHOPPER.

' Application filed May 7, 1914, Serial No.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES HENRY LAN- HAM, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Rome, in the county of Floyd and State of Georgia,have invented a new and useful GottonChopper, of which the following isa specification. 4

This invention relates to cotton choppers, one of its objects being toprovide means whereby the hoe of the machine is always actuated acrossthe row at practically the same speed irrespective of the speed at whichthe machine is traveling forward, motion being transmitted to the hoefrom the supporting wheels. 7

Heretofore, in machines in which the hoe is actuated by the rotation ofthe supporting wheels, the speed of movement of the hoe has beendependent upon the speed at which the machine has moved forward and,consequently, when the machine has been moved slowly, the hoe has notoperated efficiently to chop out the plants in the path thereof.

As hereinbefore stated, one of the objects of the present invention isto avoid this objection by providing means whereby the hoe will alwaysmove transversely of the row at the same speed no matter how fast themachine, as a whole, may be moved.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention residesin the combination andarrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that changes in the preciseembodiment of the invention herein disclosed, can be made within thescope of what isclaimed, without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen shown.

In said drawings'z-Figure 1 is a plan view of the machine. Fig. 2 is avertical longitudinal section on the line AB Fig. 1. Fig.3 is a sectionon line OD Fig. 2 and showing the relative positions of the hoe and itsactuating spring when the hoe is at one limit of its movement. Fig. 4 isa view similar to Fig. 3 and showing the relative positions of the partsimmediately prior to the movement of the hoe to its other extremeposition, the spring being under stress and about ready to shift thehoe. Fig. 5 is a view similar to Figs. 3 and 4 and showing Specificationof Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 23, 1915.

837,038. Renewed February 13, 1915. Serial No. 8,074.

the relative positions of the parts after the hoe has been shifted toits second position by the spring. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of thehoe and its actuating slide and spring. Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view ofa portion of a cotton chopping machine and showing a modified means fortransmitting motion to the chopping blade or hoe. Fig. 8 is a section online EF Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a detail view of one of the tappets used inconnection with the structure shown in Figs. 7 and 8.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates theframe of the machine, the same being supported by a revoluble axle 2secured to the supporting wheels 3. Upper and lower cross strips'4 and 5respectively constitute the back end of the frame and across strip 6connects the sides of the frame in advance of the strips 4 and hassecured to it the forward ends of rearwardly extending beams 7. Thesebeams 7 project between the cross strips 4 5 and merge into standards 8to which cultivator shovels 9 are adapted to be secured. Apertures 10are formed in the cross strips 4 and 5 and are adapted to receiveholding pins 11 which are insertible into the beams 7 and operate tohold the beams against lateral swinging.

Formed on or secured to the strips 4 and 6 are brackets 12 in which isjournaled a longitudinal shaft 13 provided at its end with a crank arm14 while extending from its rear end is a radial arm 15. hoe 16 issecured at its center to the arm 15, said arm being extendedperpendicularly from the hoe and the said hoe being formed with twoactive edges which are parallelwith each other and extend parallel withthe longitudinal center of the machine. Rearwardly diverging stopfingers 17 extend from the strip 4 and the arm 15 projects downwardlybetween them so that the oscillation of said arm is thus limited.

A cross strip 18 is carriedby the frame 1 in front of the strip 6 andhas guide ears 19 upstanding therefrom. -A slide 20 is mounted toreciprocate within these ears and has a rearwardly extending stud 21 towhich is pivotally connected one end of a bowed spring 22, the other endof'the bowed spring being pivotally connected to the free end of thecrank arm 14. Spring 22 is substan tially U-shaped.

front Extending forwardly from the slide 20 are studs 23 having rollers24 journaled thereon. A cam 25 is secured to the axle 2 so as to rotatetherewith and projects between the rollers. This cam is preferably soproportioned that, during one complete rotation of the axle 2 and cam25, the slide 20 will receive two reciprocations.

Strips 26 are secured at their front ends to the frame 1 and areinclined upwardly and rearwardly and terminate in handles 27, thesestrips being provided with suitable braces 28.

It will be understood that when the machine moves forward, the cam 25will be rotated and will bear againstone or the other of the rollers 24so as to shift the slide 20 first toward one side of the machine andthen toward the other side. Assuming that the chopping hoe is in theposition illustrated in Fig. 3 and the slide 20 is at the beginning ofits movement, it will be seen that, as the slide is shifted transverselyof the machine, the stud 21 will be brought gradually past the axis ofrotation of the shaft 13, thus gradually distorting the spring 22 andplacing the spring under stress, as shown in Fig. 4. Immediately afterthe stud 21 passes the axis of rotation of shaft 13, the spring operatesto swing the crank arm 14 to the position shown in Fig. 5, thus causingthe hoe to swing from one extreme position to the other and to chop outany plants in the path there of. During the movement of the slide 20 inthe opposite direction the action of the spring is the same, said springoperating to suddenly actuate the hoe so as to swing it back to itsfirst position as soon as the stud 21 has been brought past the axis ofrotation of the shaft 13. Thus it will be seen that the spring 22constitutes the means for actuating the hoe and, no matter how fast theslide 20 may be actuated, the spring will not be brought into play toshift the hoe until the stud 21 has been brought to a predeterminedposition whereupon the hoe will be swung to one side at a speed which isalways the same irrespective of the speed at which the machine is movedforward.

In Figs. 7, 8 and 9 a slightly modified structure has been shown. Inthis structure the frame 29 is supported by an axle 30 similar to theaxle 2 but instead of securing t0 the axle a cam such as has beenheretofore described, a drum 31 is attached thereto, this drum beingformed adjacent each end, with an annular series of apertures 32 any oneof whichis adapted to receive a tappet such as shown in Fig. 9. Eachtappet includes a rounded head 33 having a threaded stem 34 insertibleinto one of the openings 32 and secured therein by means of a nutFurthermore, instead of utilizing a slide such as shown at 20, aT-shaped lever 36 is supported by the frame, the two short arms of thelever being provided with anti-friction roll ers 37 while the long arm38 of the lever is connected, by a bowed spring 39, to a crank arm 40similar to the arm 14, this crank arm being connected to a shaft 41having a radial arm 42 to which a hoe 43 is secured. Stop fingers 44 maybe provided for limiting the swinging movement of the crank arm 40.

It is to be understood that the rollers 37 are movable into the paths ofthe tappet-s 33. During the rotation of drum 31, one of the tappets 33will strike against the roller 37 in the path thereof, thus shiftinglever 36 so that its arm 38 will move past the axis of rotation of theshaft 41, thus successively placing spring 39 under compression andbringing it to position where it can expand and shift the crank arm 40,thus to actuate the hoe 43 in the manner hereinbefore described. Thismovement of lever 36 will bring the other roller into the path of atappet near the opposite end of the drum. Consequentl by disposing thetappets in staggered relation, the lever 36 will be oscillated by thecontinuous rotation of the drum 31. It is to be understood that thetappets 33 can be placed in any desired relation to each other so thatthe hoe can thus be actuated whenever desired.

What is claimed is 1. A cotton chopper including a hoe, a crank armmovable therewith, a shiftable member, means operated by the forwardmovement of the machine for actuating said member back and forth, and aspring connection between the member and crank arm for actuating thecrank arm.

2. The combination with a wheel supported structure and a hoe carriedthereby and mounted for lateral oscillation, of a crank arm movable withthe hoe, a spring connected to the crank arm, and means operated by theforward movement of the machine for placing the spring under stress andreleasing it successively, thereby to oscillate the hoe under the actionof the spring.

3. The combination with a wheel supported structure and a hoe mountedfor lateral oscillation, of a movable member, means operated by theforward movement of the machine for moving said member back and forth, aspring connected to the member, a connection between the spring and hoe,said member operating during its movement in each direction to place thespring under com pression and release it successively thereby to actuatethe hoe.

4. The combination with a wheel support ed structure, of a longitudinalshaft, a hoe connected thereto and mounted for lateral oscillation, amovable member, means operated by the forward movement of the machinefor actuating said member back and forth, a crank arm movable with theshaft, and a spring connection between the crank arm and the movablemember, for actuating the crank arm and swing the hoe.

the shaft and hoe.

5. The combination with'a wheel supported structure, a longitudinalshaft journaled thereon, and a hoe mounted for lateral oscillation andmovable with the shaft, of a movable member, means operated by theforward movement of the machine for moving said member back and forth, acrank arm extending from the shaft, a spring thereon and secured to themember, said member operating during its movement in each direction toplace the spring under compression and then to shift the line of forceexerted by the spring to permit expansion of the spring and actuation ofthe crank arm and hoe.

6. A cotton chopper including a wheel supported structure, a shaftthereon, a hoe movable with the shaft and adapted to oscillatelaterally,a crank arm movable with the shaft, a spring connected at one end to thecrank arm, a movable member, means operated by the forward movement ofthe machine for actuating the member back and forth thereby to compressthe spring between the member and the crank arm during each movement ofthe member and to subsequently release the spring to expand against 7The combination with a wheel supported structure, of a shaft supportedthereby, a laterally movablehoe carried by the shaft, a crank arm uponthe shaft, a movable member, an actuating device revoluble with thesupporting wheels, means upon the member and engaging the actuatingdevice whereby said member is actuated back and forth dur- 7 ing theforward movement of the machine,

and a spring connection between the mem-' JAMES HENRY LANHAM.

Witnesses:

J. A. JENKINS, FLORENCE JENKINS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents Washington, D'. G.

